Microsoft Autoupdate Now Gives Download Error

BertingAP wrote:

My Microsoft autoupdate for office shows download error for today's updates (word powerpoint and excel) where as it worked fine before.

Same here - although the AutoUpdater updated Microsoft Edge fine. Even a fresh install of the AutoUpdater package didn't resolve, so I'm guessing that it is something on Microsoft's server end.

In the interim, I found this link to download the Office apps updater files manually - these seem to download fine:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/update-history-office-for-mac

BertingAP wrote:

This is unfortunate. The 2019 version is not that old to become unsupported.

I know. I had to dig up the last updated full installer from my Microsoft account info and completely wipe out any traces of whatever the 365-based Office 2021 installed (without me adding a paid subscription) using these instructions:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/uninstall-office-for-mac-eefa1199-5b58-43af-8a3d-b73dc1a8cae3

Then reinstall from the installer file downloaded from my account.

Sure enough, when AutoUpdater runs, it is showing the same three Office apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) as being eligible to update, but times out in error once the download is attempted.

In essence, what I think is happening (for those of us still running Office 2019 apps) is AutoUpdater finds the most current versions of the apps' update files (Office 2021) on the Microsoft server but times out once the program realizes that it is trying to update the currently installed Office 2019 apps. Just a theory - but it sounds like the AutoUpdater app needs an update itself, as there is no real indication here that the currently installed product attempting update has reached End of Life status. (I only recall seeing the same orange-yellow exclamation point on each line, no text indicating EOL - had to dig for that info)

And manually installing from the original link above will put Office 2021 on your computer, which requires activation via a paid subscription. I found that out the hard way...

So best advice for those of us not updating to the latest version - we will have to ignore those rows in AutoUpdater for the foreseeable future.

Steve

BertingAP wrote:

My Microsoft autoupdate for office shows download error for today's updates (word powerpoint and excel) where as it worked fine before.

As an addendum, if you're like me who had been running a standalone (i.e. non-Microsoft 365) version of Office 2019, apparently the End of Life for the product was October 10, 2023. So it's possible that these updates not downloading were 365-based.

(I just found out the hard way that I either have to update to 365 or find a way to restore my earlier version)